Russia-Ukraine war, MMIW day of awareness, Cinco de Mayo: 5 things to know Thursday

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Ukraine makes gains against Russia, but battles are 'heavy, bloody' in Mariupol

Ukraine's General Staff says the nation's forces made some gains on the border of the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv and repelled multiple Russian attacks in the east. The General Staff's daily morning update Thursday said the Russians "lost control over several settlements" on the border of those regions. Ukrainian forces also repelled 11 attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the update said. At the same time, fighting over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol continued, the General Staff said. The commander of the main defending force at the plant said the Russians have broken into the mill's compound, where limited evacuations of civilians took place over the weekend before being halted. Russian incursions had occurred for two days and "there are heavy, bloody battles," a Ukrainian military official said in a video Wednesday. Russia is trying to stop the flow of Western weapons into Ukraine by bombing railroad stations and other supply-line targets, Russian officials said.

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Jill Biden leaves for trip to Romania, Slovakia

First lady Jill Biden will leave Thursday for Romania and Slovakia on the borders of western Ukraine for a four-day visit to highlight the Biden administration's support for Ukraine and its people. Biden will meet with some of the millions of Ukrainian refugee families in Slovakia on Sunday. Nearly 5.5 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to The Associated Press, citing the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Biden will also meet with American troops, embassy officials, aid workers and government officials in the two countries.

Day of awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women

Nobody knows how many missing or murdered Indigenous women there are, but it’s enough to have its own acronym: MMIW. May 5 marks the national day of awareness for MMIW, part a grassroots movement to draw attention to outsized levels of violence against Indigenous people, particularly women and children. Indigenous women are murdered at disproportionately high rates compared with other ethnic groups. The FBI's National Crime Information Center reported 5,203 missing Indigenous girls and women in 2021, a total deemed an undercount in a report to Congress because of a lack of comprehensive data. While new federal laws and actions have attempted to address the problem, advocates and family members of victims say these initiatives have not gone far enough — a report from the General Accounting Office noted how federal officials failed to meet deadlines imposed by the new laws.

Cinco de Mayo: How the day became more popular in the US than Mexico

No, it’s not Mexico's Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo on Thursday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla. The victory wasn't celebrated in Mexico at first, but rather by Mexican Americans as a form of resistance to the effects of the Mexican-American War, according to Mario García, a Chicanx historian from UC Santa Barbara. The holiday then picked up more traction during the Chicano Movement during the 1960s and 1970s, and now has been commercialized across the United States. While the holiday isn't honoring Mexico’s independence as many believe, it is still a monumental day in Mexico's history, and a celebration Hispanics carried into the United States.

Read about Cinco de Mayo in Spanish below 👇

Cinco de mayo: Como el día festivo se volvió más popular en los Estados Unidos que en México

No, no es el Día de la Independencia de México. El cinco de mayo conmemora la improbable victoria del ejército mexicano sobre las fuerzas francesas de Napoleón III el 5 de mayo de 1862 en la Batalla de Puebla. La victoria no fue celebrada en México al principio, sino fue adoptada por los mexicanos-americanos como un acto de resistencia hacia el impacto de la guerra entre Estados Unidos y México, según Mario García, un historiador chicanx de Universidad de California, Santa Barbara. Luego, la festividad ganó fuerza durante el movimiento chicano durante las décadas de 1960 y 1970, y ahora se ha comercializado en todo Estados Unidos. Aunque la festividad no honra la independencia de México como muchos creen, sigue siendo un día importante en la historia de México y una celebración que los hispanos llevaron a los Estados Unidos.

Action packed 'Doctor Strange' sequel makes first appearance in theaters

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," the latest blockbuster film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, arrives in theaters for its first showings Thursday evening. Marvel fans just saw surgeon-turned-sorcerer Stephen Strange late last year in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." And while "Madness," technically, is a sequel to 2016's "Doctor Strange," it may feel more like a sequel to "No Way Home," given the introduction of the multiverse and – spoiler alert! – multiple Spider-Men. In "Madness," Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) helps a teen (Xochitl Gomez) who has the power to travel the multiverse but doesn't know how to control it. Directed by Sam Raimi, "Madness" also stars Elizabeth Olsen, again playing Wanda Maximoff, Rachel McAdams and Benedict Wong, also reprising their characters from earlier films. In his ★★★ (out of four) review, critic Brian Truitt says "Madness" "goes to some creepy places visually, with sinister delights sprinkled amid the more expected events of an overstuffed Marvel project."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia-Ukraine war, MMIW day of awareness: 5 things to know Thursday